By Keith Coffman DENVER (Reuters) - Soaring temperatures and recent rains have hastened the run-off from Coloradoâs melting snowpack, causing widespread flooding concerns across the Rocky Mountain state, authorities said on Tuesday. The National Weather Service has issued flood warnings or advisories for more than a dozen counties, ranging from engorged mountain streams to downstream rivers and tributaries on the high plains of eastern Colorado. ...

By Sharon Bernstein SACRAMENTO Calif. (Reuters) - As California enters summer with a below-normal mountain snowpack to feed its streams and reservoirs, the portion of the parched state experiencing exceptionally severe drought conditions is growing, experts said. The most populous U.S. state is in the third year of a crippling drought that has forced ranchers to sell cattle for lack of grazing land, and farmers to let an estimated 400,000 acres normally devoted...

Thursday dawns foggy and drizzly in the midst of Chicago's mildest daybreak temperatures in 17 days. Not since a 39(degrees) low on Nov. 28 has it been any milder here. The flood of mild, moist air into the area in combination with the natural settling of snow since last Thursday's snowstorm has trimmed six inches from the area's still-extensive snowpack at Midway Airport in just the past 5 days--from 11" last Friday to 5" by late Wednesday evening. A burst of snow early Wednesday...

By Keith Coffman DENVER (Reuters) - Soaring temperatures and recent rains have hastened the run-off from Coloradoâs melting snowpack, causing widespread flooding concerns across the Rocky Mountain state, authorities said on Tuesday. The National Weather Service has issued flood warnings or advisories for more than a dozen counties, ranging from engorged mountain streams to downstream rivers and tributaries on the high plains of eastern Colorado. ...

Blame a late season snowpack still in place over sections of southern Canada and the chilly waters of Lake Michigan for the late February level temperatures expected to dominate most of Friday. Computer-generated wind trajectories indicate the chilly air here Friday was situated in central Ontario Province, Canada, Thursday. Powerful NE winds have forced the chill on a trek into the metro area, much of it over the cold waters of Lake Michigan. The time incoming air spends over the cold...

Oak Park Public Works Department crews were clearing sewer inlets of ice and debris Wednesday as rising temperatures and forecasts of rain raised the possibility of flooding. "No flooding has been reported," Village spokesman David Powers said. "However, the potential is there given the snowpack, frozen ground and rain in the forecast. " Floods last April in Oak Park submerged streets and canceled classes. Current conditions are not similar to those that caused the floods,...

The Chicago area has been battered by storms on each of the first three weekends of December, but unlike the icy glaze delivered by the first two, this one delivered substantial snow. The replenished snowpack will play a major role in reducing area temperatures and increase the likelihood of the first White Christmas here since 2003. SNOWFALL TOTALS: HEAVIEST SOUTH OF LAKE MICHIGAN Heaviest totals (up to 11") occurred near the south end of the lake,...

Chicagoans gaze out at a cover of snow for a 21st consecutive day Friday. The milder temperatures of recent days have begun melting snow in the city, but slowly. Two inches disappeared in Thursday's snow-eating 40-degree temperatures. The melting decreased the snow depth at Midway Airport to just 3 inches, according to veteran National Weather Service observer Frank Wachowski -- an amount below the 5 inches measured Wednesday. Clouds will shroud the area's skies much of Friday, though...

A blizzard 700 miles north of Chicago Wednesday buried sections of northern Manitoba and Ontario Provinces beneath 12" of snow. That storm's snowfall produced the latest expansion in Canada's fast-developing snowpack. Snow is now on the ground across more than half of Canada. Given the chill which has developed there, further development of the snow cover is likely. As the most reflective surface on earth, snow reflects incoming sunlight back into space...

The mildest temperatures in 2 weeks arrive Sunday but won't last long. Cold air returns early next week. A storm lifts north from the Gulf States on Tuesday and could bring more snow to Chicago or areas nearby. More snow may hit Thursday. SOURCES: NOAA-NCEP, National Weather Service-Chicago, Frank Wachowski WGN-TV/Thomas Valle, Jim Andersen, Suzanne Traub ---------- Weather Report is prepared by the WGN-TV Weather Center, where Tom Skilling is chief...

The Chicago area shivered in the season's coldest readings to date Friday morning--many of them sub-zero from the Fox Valley westward--but prepares in coming days to watch the area's snowpack disappear. In a week which has featured 4 single digit lows in Chicago, the coldest among them Friday's 4(degrees) daybreak reading at O'Hare and even colder -6(degrees) lows in west suburban Aurora and -7(degrees) in Ogle County's Rochelle, it's hard to believe the 5-10" of snow...

There's not been this much snow on the ground in the city since last February. The 8" cover of snow at Midway Airport Monday marks only the third time a Dec. 17 since 1928 has featured snow as deep. A shallow layer of cold air a little over 500 feet deep hugs the area snowpack as Tuesday dawns. This has forced gusty southerly winds several hundred feet off the ground and allowed some areas of fog to form. It has also set up an interesting situation in which the tops of...

Snowpack: The total snow and ice on the ground, including new snow and all snow and ice remaining from previous storms. The depth of ChicagoOs snowpack is measured daily at Midway Airport and recorded to the nearest inch.

The Chicago area has been battered by storms on each of the first three weekends of December, but unlike the icy glaze delivered by the first two, this one delivered substantial snow. The replenished snowpack will play a major role in reducing area temperatures and increase the likelihood of the first White Christmas here since 2003. SNOWFALL TOTALS: HEAVIEST SOUTH OF LAKE MICHIGAN Heaviest totals (up to 11") occurred near the south end of the lake,...

Dear Mr. Skilling, We have been hearing a lot about the current storms and increased precipitation (and snow in the mountains) in California. What happens in spring when the snowpack melts? I have not heard any warnings about flooding Ronald Kallen, Chicago Dear Ronald, Indeed the extreme rains in California are producing heavy snows in the Sierras. Snowpack in ski resorts around Lake Tahoe are running between 220 and 320 inches, an incredible 18 to...

A blizzard 700 miles north of Chicago Wednesday buried sections of northern Manitoba and Ontario Provinces beneath 12" of snow. That storm's snowfall produced the latest expansion in Canada's fast-developing snowpack. Snow is now on the ground across more than half of Canada. Given the chill which has developed there, further development of the snow cover is likely. As the most reflective surface on earth, snow reflects incoming sunlight back into space...

Oak Park Public Works Department crews were clearing sewer inlets of ice and debris Wednesday as rising temperatures and forecasts of rain raised the possibility of flooding. "No flooding has been reported," Village spokesman David Powers said. "However, the potential is there given the snowpack, frozen ground and rain in the forecast. " Floods last April in Oak Park submerged streets and canceled classes. Current conditions are not similar to those that caused the floods,...

This ninth weekend of meteorological autumn is to end up the season's chilliest to date--22 degrees below last weekend's temperatures which included an unseasonable late-season 80(degrees) Sunday high. Northerly winds--in effect a 3,000-mile atmospheric conveyor belt extending from the northernmost tip of Hudson Bay south to Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula--are encouraging chilly air to spill southward off northern Canada's growing snowpack into the U.S. A mammoth Canadian high pressure is behind...